On deadline day, Liverpool made a surprise move to sign Arthur on loan from Juventus – the international colleague of Fabinho, Alisson and Roberto Firmino.
The Brazil international arrives on loan for the 2022/23 campaign, and despite reports stating that Liverpool did not negotiate an option to buy, Juventus officially announced there is a €37.5m (£32m) purchase option.
Therefore, if Arthur does well at Anfield, Jürgen Klopp could get himself a bargain.
Of course, the Premier League is a notoriously difficult division to adapt to, although one fact involving Fabinho suggests the 26-year-old could shine on Merseyside.
What’s the story?
Well, Fabinho and Arthur seem to love playing alongside each other if the numbers are anything to go by.
When playing in midfield together for Brazil, the pair have a 100% win rate, including a 1-0 win over Argentina in which they did a tremendous job alongside each other.
Of course, it is only a small sample size – six games to be exact – although it is certainly interesting to see that the opposition struggle to score goals against a midfield two of Arthur and Fabinho.
In truth, we are not surprised – the pair compliment each other well.
What Arthur lacks in tackling and intercepting, Fabinho provides, whereas the Liverpool No.3 is unable to dictate a game from deep like the on-loan Juventus playmaker can.
A solid midfield base of Fabinho and Arthur should settle things down tremendously, and allow whoever is playing slightly further forward in midfield – most likely Harvey Elliott – to focus more on attacking rather than tracking back.
In that respect, the deadline day agreement with Juventus could end up being a masterstroke by Julian Ward.
Liverpool may have a gem in Arthur
In our view, this really could be a bit of genius from Liverpool.
For a start, Juventus paid £72.5m for the South American, but Liverpool have impressively managed to negotiate an option to buy him on a permanent basis for less than half of that figure at £32m.
Furthermore, Lionel Messi has compared Arthur to Xavi, which speaks volumes about his ability.
Of course, some may question why Juventus are letting him leave, but after the Italian giants willingly handed Dejan Kulusevski to Tottenham in January, their decision making clearly isn’t the best.
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